Schools 'should stay open 10 hours a day to help hard-working families'

Call comes as all-party committee of MPs says schools opening earlier and closing later can help boost results of youngsters from poorer backgrounds

Open up: Longer school hours could help poorer children who are lagging behind in lessons

Schools should open earlier and close later to help hard-pressed working mums and dads, an education minister will urge today.

Elizabeth Truss said the majority of schools were extending their day, but more could be done to provide much-needed flexibility and support for working parents.

Her call comes as an all-party committee of MPs said longer school days can boost the results of youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds by giving them somewhere to do their homework.

The Commons Education Select Committee wants the government examine which incentives would encourage good teachers to work in disadvantaged schools.

The MPs said that schools serving poor white communities “need a better chance of winning”.

Ms Truss, in a keynote speech today, will say that she wants more schools offering a day 9 or 10 hours long with a flexi-nursery for 2,3, and four-year-olds

She said schools like Great Yarmouth Primary Academy which offers an 8-6 day and Evelyn Street Primary in Warrington which offers flexible care for 2, 3 and 4 year olds from 8-6.

New research by the Department for Education shows that last year around half of all primaries in England - almost 10,000 schools - were offering care both before and after school during term time, such as breakfast clubs and homework clubs.

Some 64% of all English primary schools provided access to before school care, 70% provided access to after-school care and 19% provided access to holiday care.

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Call: Elizabeth Truss MP believes longer hours would help families

Before and after-school care is most common in schools in the most deprived areas. 73% of primary schools in the most deprived areas run before-school activities,compared with just 61% in the rest of the country.

Ms Truss will say: “Parents today are working harder than ever, spending more time with their children than ever, and worrying more than ever about how to help their child succeed.

“This generation of working parents with young children spends more time on childcare than stay at home parents did in the 1970s. And stay at hone parents are devoting more time to their children.

“And we’re determined to make schools become institutions that work better with modern life - that prepare children for all the challenges of the modern world, and support and help family life - not necessarily for extra lessons - but for a safe, calm place to do homework, or to go over classes which you didn’t get the first time round.

“Also time for clubs like debating, cadets, orchestras, sport and drama, for volunteering or Duke of Edinburgh or careers talks from employers - all the sort of enrichment activities which our best schools already offer as a matter of course.”

Meanwhile, the under-achievement of white working-class children was highlighted in a report by the education select committee.

Figures show that just under a third (32%) of poor white British children got at least five C grades at GCSE, including English and maths last year, compared with 61.5% of poor children from an Indian background and 76.8% of poor children from a Chinese background.

And the gap in results between poor white children and their richer classmates has hardly changed in the last seven years, but the attainment of poor children from other ethnic backgrounds is improving faster than that of poor white children.

The MPs also found that white British students from poorer families spend fewer evenings per week doing their homework, and have a higher absence rate from school than many other ethnic groups.

In the past children who left school without decent exam results would have spent their working life doing routine manual work in factories, now they are more likely to end up as “Neet” (not in education, employment or training).

The report says: “This problem must be tackled by ensuring that the best teachers and leaders are incentivised to work in the schools and areas that need them most, and by providing better advice and guidance to young people.

“Poor white children in rural and coastal areas have been “unseen” for too long; unless such steps are taken, the potential of white working-class children will be left unlocked, and the effects of the current trend will continue to be felt beyond the school gates.”